Nowadays, it is reported that the number of diabetics all over Japan amounts to approximately 6,000,000. Among them, approximately 2,000,000 diabetics go to hospital regularly as outpatients while the others are potential patients. Therapy for such diabetics includes alimentary therapy, ergotherapy, pharmacotherapy, insulin therapy and so forth. Whichever therapy is applied, daily blood glucose level management of each patient is very significant.
However, even in the case where a patient himself/herself uses a blood glucose level measuring instrument to periodically measure the blood glucose level, it may not be easy to grasp the transition of the blood glucose level with respect to time and blood glucose level information such as a maximum value, a minimum value and a mean value of the blood glucose level. Many patients feel happy and anxious in turn with a variation of the measured blood glucose level, but cannot necessarily recognize accurately in what manner the variation of the blood glucose level is associated with the patient's way of living, the amount of a food ingested, the time zone and so forth.
Further, while the number of doctors as specialists for diabetes is approximately 10,000 over Japan, the number of diabetics is approximately 6,000,000 as described above. Therefore, one doctor must examine 600 patients. Further, since it is estimated that there is a tendency that diabetics increase in the future, a blood glucose level information processing apparatus is demanded which allows the blood glucose level to be periodically measured by the patient to be managed readily and allows a doctor to relatively easily handle the transition of the blood glucose level with respect to time and the blood glucose level information and make a diagnosis appropriately.
According to one of such blood glucose level information processing apparatus as just described, a blood glucose level measured by a blood glucose level measuring instrument and the date/time of the measurement at which the blood glucose level is measured are acquired, and the blood glucose level is classified based on the date/time of the measurement into one of several time slots, namely “before breakfast,” “after breakfast,” “before lunch,” “after lunch,” “before supper,” “after supper,” “before going to bed,” “late at night” and so forth. An example of such an apparatus is described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-60803.
Consequently, the blood glucose level information processing apparatus can provide blood glucose levels and blood glucose level information based on the blood glucose levels statistically to a doctor and so forth for the individual time slots. Further, by displaying the blood glucose levels and the blood glucose level information based on the blood glucose levels as a graph along a time series based on the date/time of the measurement, the blood glucose level information processing apparatus allows a doctor or the like to easily grasp a tendency of the blood glucose levels and the blood glucose level information.
The conventional blood glucose level information processing apparatus has a problem in that, when blood glucose levels and blood glucose level information are displayed as a graph along a time series based on the date/time of measurement, the time axis cannot be varied readily, and therefore, cumbersome operation is imposed on a user when blood glucose levels and blood glucose level information within a period or range desired by the user are to be provided readily.
Further, in a conventional blood glucose level information processing apparatus, when a blood glucose value is to be sorted into one of time slots, it is sorted based on the date/time of measurement. Therefore, when actual meal time is different from the set time, the blood glucose level cannot be sorted appropriately. Accordingly, there is a problem that an accurate blood glucose value and accurate blood glucose value information for each time slot cannot be provided.